


Fading Colours

by Silva_13



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst with a Happy Ending, BOTFA aftermath, Hurt Fíli, Hurt Kíli, M/M, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 18:41:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9620540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silva_13/pseuds/Silva_13
Summary: This is a fill for the FiKi WinterFRE2017, prompt Nr. 26 "Black and Blue".





	

The armies of dwarves, men and elves had been silent and bowed their heads when the gravely injured crown prince was carried into the mountain, followed by his devastated and obviously limping brother, who had to be supported from their grief-stricken uncle, the King under the Mountain. 

~~~

“Kili.”

Thorin took a seat next to his unresponsive nephew, who hadn’t left his place at his brother’s bedside for two days now. The brunet held one of his hands in his own and stroked over the knuckles. Oin end the elven healers had done their best, tending to the stab wound in his stomach and the broken leg Fili had sustained from his fall off the tower. 

_He didn’t fall, he had been dropped._

Kili had seen Azog holding Fili over the edge, stabbing him from behind and throwing him to the far ground. He barely remembered jumping forward to slow down his brother’s fall with his own body before he hit bottom, regardless the consequences such an impact might have on him himself. It didn’t matter as long as he was able to save his brother’s life. The life of his _One_. 

He might have lost consciousness for a while, for the next thing he knew was Dwalin shaking his shoulder. He had heard far battle cries and a screeching sound, which had turned out to be the giant eagles which had come to their help at last second. Firstly, his uncle had been nowhere to be seen, but returned soon, being covered in black orc blood. 

“The Defiler got what he deserved, as did his brood”, Thorin had growled, fresh tear streaks on his cheeks. That was when Kili realised that his brother hadn’t moved at all. His memories after that were incomplete, he only fragmentarily remembered crying and begging, screaming and, eventually, breaking down. 

Thorin had to help him walking back to the mountain since he was scarcely able to hold himself upright. And putting weight on his left leg had been difficult, as it just wouldn’t hold him. 

~~~

“Please, Kili. Have some soup.”

The brunet only shook his head. He was nauseous all the time, since the fear for his brother’s life was eating him alive. After Fili’s injuries had been treated, Oin had informed him that the rest was up to his brother. All they could do now was prevent an infection of the wounds and pray to Mahal to let him wake up. 

And so Kili did. He sat on his brother’s bedside, sending quiet prayers to their maker. He felt numb and empty, as if the second part of his soul had been gone. Sometimes he cried, begging Fili to wake up and stay with him in this world. Nothing could give him comfort, though everyone tried his best. The imagination of being ripped of his One was paralysing, leaving Kili in a state of deep depression from which he couldn’t find a way out alone.

It didn’t help that his uncle kept on insisting that he had to be looked over by the healers himself. Yes his face might be bruised, his left eye even swollen shut, but he was far from being as severely injured as Fili. He had a broken heart, that’s were all the pain he felt came from. He could barely breathe through the tightening feeling in his chest and his stomach ached often, because he was plagued with cramps. All of it results of the tremendous burden and fright he had to endure. He didn’t need a healer for that. He needed his brother, no-one else.

“Kili, you caught Fili’s fall with your own body. The impact was immense, you must be hurt. All I want is you letting Oin examine you. He can even do that here, you won’t have to leave Fili’s side.”

Thorin’s voice sounded pleading and desperate. Not only had his greed for the Mountain’s treasure almost killed his beloved older nephew, it had also left the younger one, which wasn’t loved any less, in a state of grief which now boarded on insanity. At this very moment both of his boys were highly endangered of losing their lives and all of that was his fault.

It had been two days now and Fili still hadn’t woken up. His condition also hadn’t worsened and Thorin took that as a good sign. But if Kili continued to refuse medical treatment or food for any longer, he feared he might succumb under the pressure, if not to an injury he might have sustained from the impact. He still remembered his younger nephew’s slumped posture and the incapability of walking on his left leg on the way down from Ravenhill.

The brunet was almost as pale as his brother, who lay still in his bed in the improvised medical wing they had built up. Kili had left his brother’s bedside not once, wearing himself down with worry. He insisted on washing and feeding Fili himself, only giving the healers room to treat the wounds. He hadn’t slept, nor had he eaten, and that left the king deeply concerned. If only he knew how to convince Kili to take a little care of himself.

“Your brother will need you, when he wakes up. Making yourself sick is not helping him in any way. He wouldn’t like that at all.”

But Kili didn’t answer, only moved a little to shrug off the hand Thorin had put on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. He didn’t need pity and he didn’t need food, only his brother. _His One_. The dwarf he had been supposed to marry his entire life, who was his sun, his heartbeat and the very reason to breathe. If Fili wasn’t to wake up, he, Kili, wouldn’t do so one morning as well.

~~~

It was dark outside again. Kili tried to remember how many nights he had spent with Fili in the halls of healing. It must have been three, or four already? He couldn’t really recall. After he had snapped once or twice at the healers and had quite a nasty outburst towards his uncle people mostly had left him alone. He was glad, as he didn’t feel very well, the burden of watching Fili die was too big. He had cramps and felt dizzy. Sometimes he was cold, sometimes hot, he shook and sweated, carding trembling fingers through his lover’s hair, but nothing could make him leave his place by Fili’s side. He cried more often now, his pleads and prayers got more devastated with every hour.

~~~

On the fifth day after the battle Kili felt so worn out that he dozed off from time to time, only to startle awake every time his head slumped onto his chest. There were only a few candles lit in the dark room, for he couldn’t bear more light in his gloomy state.

“Fee, come back”, he whispered, his lips chapped and his tongue dry, “please come back to me. I need you.”

It was some hours later when he saw his brother’s lids twitching. At first he thought he imagined things, but after he squeezed Fili’s hand and encouraged him again to finally wake up, the blue eyes indeed opened, looking through the room unseeingly. But after a few blinks they focussed on Kili, who only could stare at his brother, tears of relief in his eyes and mouth agape. 

“Kee! My love.”

His voice cracked from misuse, but the affectionate tone made Kili’s heart melt. His brother was awake, finally. His mouth opened and closed a few times but he couldn’t say anything, only stare at him and cry happy tears. It was when Fili’s hand reached out to him that he finally snapped out of his immobility.

“Fee! Thank Mahal, you’re awake!”

Kili let himself go for a moment when a wave relief and joy washed over him. Fili was awake, he had recognised him and had acknowledged their love for each other. There didn’t seem to be any mental damage, like Oin had feared.

“My brother, my beloved brother, I’d feared the worst.”

Fili, too weak to sit up, lifted his arm and cupped Kili’s cheek, who took the hand and leant into the touch, tears of joy streaming down his face.

“You feel warm, you sure you’re well?”

“It’s just you and your ice-cold hands. I’m fine.”

“Kili, what happened? Last thing I know is that I got into a fight with Azog.”

“He … he stabbed you and … and… let you fall from … from the watch tower. I had to watch from the lower levels. I … I thought you’d die.”

“And before that could happen he threw himself into the way to stop your fall, or maybe he tried to catch you, but in the end you both lay on the ground, crushed and bruised.”

The deep voice had come from the door, where Thorin stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest, a stern look on his face. But the dark glow didn’t last long when relief and affection for his nephews took place instead. 

“And I thank him every day for that stunt, even if he won’t hear me.”

He gifted Kili with a fond, if not a little sad, smile and came over to the bed, where he sat on the edge. 

“Fili, my sister-son. You’re awake, thank Mahal, I feared the worst.” 

He carefully stroked over Fili’s head, smiling and wiping his eyes with his other hand. 

"Now let’s Oin have a look at you. Maybe this time he’s even allowed to tend to your brother.”

A look of confusion crossed the crown prince’s features and he tried to have a better view on his brother who slightly turned away, muttering something under his breath. His form was trembling slightly and even in the barely lit room he could see, that he hadn’t taken care of himself for a while. The strands which hang in his face were tangled and greasy and he looked as if he was about to pass out every moment.

When Kili noticed his brother’s observing glares he smiled.

“I’m fine, Fee, I’m fine.”

~~~  
When Thorin returned with the old healer the first thing they did was lighten the room properly. Then Oin turned to Fili, demanding him to lift his arms and the good leg, poking his tongue out and answering a lot of questions like his age, the names of his parents and his last whereabouts. In the end he emitted a content grunt.

“Aye, you’ll be right as rain as soon as that leg is healed. These elves also did a miracle to that stab wound, it’s almost closed. And now…”, and with that he turned to Kili, who had backtracked to the far end of the bed, ”…now, little princeling, it’s your turn. Clothes off!”

Kili, who had coped with his brother’s condition by strict refusal of any help culminating in anger tantrums and complete withdrawal, shrank from the healer, looking embarrassed and small.

“I’m fine, I’m not hurt.”

It was only now that Fili saw that Kili looked even worse than he had seen before in the candle light.

A huge bruise, which had not fainted in the slightest, although the battle had been five days ago, covered the left side of his face, his eye was swollen shut and there was dry blood on his left eyebrow, which his brother hadn’t bothered to clean up. The uninjured side of his face was ghostly pale with dark shadows under his eye and a hollow cheek. And Kili was trembling, more so, he was now shaking, a thin layer of sweat on his skin. In the few hours after his awakening his brother’s condition had worsened immensely.

“Why has no one tended to him before?”

“Fili, he strictly refused. He didn’t let anyone come close to him, shooing them off, screaming loudly and threatening them. He would not eat, he barely drank and he never slept. He existed only to take care of you, ready to leave this world with you if you did. We tried our best to convince him, but he wouldn’t listen. The only other way would have been the violent one and we didn’t want that given the situation he was in, so close to losing his One. And you know he’s just as stubborn as any Durin.” 

Thorin smiled grimly, but when Kili eventually pulled his tunic off, carefully as if in pain, he froze. The brunet’s left side was severely bruised, purple and blue without the signs of fading into green, from his arm and shoulder to the chest and upper back to the hipbone. Oin stared as well, but not at the bruise. What had the healer almost losing it was the angry red rimmed and festering wound that was on the right side of Kili’s abdomen. It stank and only coming near to it had the brunet cringe. All of them, Kili included, were appalled by the shape the brunet was in. Not once had he changed during the last days and his heart had been in so much agony that he hadn’t felt any physical pain. 

When Thorin cut Kili’s trousers open, for the prince wasn’t able to pull them off the left leg without wincing in pain, they saw the bruise was stretching out to the calf. The leg was turned inwards and seemed to be a bit shorter. Until now Fili hadn’t noticed that Kili had not stood up once. He inhaled sharply, causing his distressed brother to turn his face to him.

“Really, it isn’t that bad.”

“Kee, you’re black and blue from head to toe. You … you … you’ve an infected wound and probably a dozen broken ribs. You will get a bed set up right next to mine and now you will let Oin treat you properly!”

And Kili did. Now, that the all-consuming fright of losing his beloved was gone he could feel the physical pain of his injuries. There were surely some cracked ribs under this spectacular bruise and now, that he realised that the cramps and the shaking weren’t symptoms of distress but of an infected abdominal wound, the mere thought of someone touching his stomach made him flinch in pain. But none of that was as bad as when Oin examined his leg. Kili couldn’t help but scream when Oin palpated the leg and hipbone, only to announce that both had been fractured multiple times.

He called for a younger healer to mix concoctions to set Kili asleep and help with the pain while he himself went to bring back one of the elven healers. 

“We have to set the bones into the right place again, otherwise the leg and hip won’t heal properly and you will never walk without limping. We’ll tend to the stomach wound in the same session. That sleeping concoction is very strong, so you won’t feel much. 

Kili was laid on a stretcher and brought to another room. Fili, not able to follow him due to his own injuries, begged and pleaded to get over with the procedure right here, so that he and his brother wouldn’t be separated, but Oin had no mercy on that matter. 

“We won’t have you put too much strain on yourself watching your brother getting fixed. Here drink that, you must be in pain, too.”

And before Fili could fight it, a cup with a strange smelling fluid was forced down his throat and while he still struggled to stay awake to continue his protest, a dark veil lowered over his sight and his limbs got heavy.

~~~

Fili awoke to cold drops of water hitting his forehead. When he opened his eyes, he saw his uncle, wringing out a wet cloth and wrapping it carefully around a calf. Not his calf though, too much dark hair for that matter. He blinked a few times and saw his brother lying next to him. Thorin had placed a cloth on his forehead and the second one around Kili’s right lower leg. He was still sleeping peacefully, although he looked worn out and sick.

Thorin noticed his older nephew being awake and smiled at him fondly. 

“Everything went well, Oin’s sanguine that your brother’s leg will heal fully. And the stomach wound isn’t too deep and didn’t severe anything vital, but the infection is serious. He’s running a high fever and hadn’t woken yet. Oin says it’s due to the medication. They gave him a higher dose so he could find some rest. He’s in dire need of it. He’s strong though and as stubborn as only a dwarf from Durin’s line can be. He will pull through it.”

“Did he really throw himself under me to stop my fall?”

“He did. Dwalin and I were too far away to stop him. And I’m glad we were, as you would have died instantly otherwise. But finding you both lying on the ground unresponsively … that was … I thought… ”

Fili reached out as he saw his uncle’s eyes tearing up, patting his forearm in an attempt to comfort him. He couldn’t remember when he had last seen him in such a vulnerable state. A dark shadow flashed over Thorin’s face and his expression turned even sadder.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to take better care of him. I should have seen what he was doing and force him to see Oin. He wouldn’t be in this state if I had.”

“I probably would have ripped your head off like you had done with Azog.” 

Fili and Thorin turned their heads in surprise to Kili, whose good eye was open now. His swollen and bruised face was sweaty and the unaffected skin had an unhealthy shade of greenish grey. But nonetheless, there was the small hint of a smile on his chapped lips when he rasped, “you wouldn’t have stand a chance.” 

Thorin couldn’t help but laugh heartily. At first the sound felt strange, as everything he had known for the past few days had been worry and sorrow, but then relief kicked in and he laughed even harder.

~~~

“I can’t remember being stabbed. Where does that wound in my stomach come from?”

Oin, who just had changed the bandages of the lads' injuries, quite satisfied with the healing progress, had asked himself this question a lot of times, but the observation of the brother’s gear had finally brought the answer.

“It seems that one of Fili’s knives came loose from his holder during his fight with Azog and hurt you when he hit you on the ground.”

“So _I_ stabbed my brother?”

“I got myself stabbed, it wasn’t your fault.”

Oin couldn’t help but chuckle at Kili’s never ending task to make sure his brother couldn’t be blamed in any case. It had always been that way. And now that both of the boys he had known since their births were on their way of recovery, he could allow himself to feel relieved and happy again. 

~~~

Kili was feverish for the next three days, but felt a little better with every hour, probably because of the potions Oin made him and Fili drink. He slept a lot and spent the rest of his time snuggled up to his brother, who didn’t sleep any less. The blue and purple bruises in his face had slowly started to turn into an ugly green and he could open his left eye again, if not fully yet. Soon it would be yellow and after all the colours had finally faded, he hoped nothing would remind Fili of the stunt he had pulled. The bruise on his left torso would need longer to disappear. He also had five broken ribs which were examined by the healers on a daily base to prevent an injury of the lung. 

Thorin, who had temporarily devolved the kingship to Dain, stayed with his nephews and tended to them lovingly, giving them small portions of light food and drink and watching over their progress fondly. Soon both of them were able to deal with solid food and could set themselves upright on their own. 

After a dew days it was clear that both would make a full recovery, although they had to stay in bed for another two months due to their broken legs, which couldn’t be loaded with any weight. Thorin arranged for the princes to be moved into the royal quarters as soon as those were ready, so they could spend the rest of their bed-confinement in their new master bedroom. 

Even when Fili was long allowed to get up, for he had only had a broken leg, whilst his brother’s fractured hipbone took longer to heal, he stayed with his brother. There was no way to separate the princes. After each of them had feared to lose his brother, none would let the other out of his sight. Even Thorin had accepted that, visiting twice a day to look after them, although his kingly liabilities consumed most of his time. 

~~~

“Am I still ugly or are they gone?”

Fili’s fingers slowly brushed over Kili’s left cheek, admiring the soft skin which had regained his usual complexion. His brother smiled sheepishly, a light blush on his cheeks, a sight that made Fili’s heart melt. 

“Those bruises were never ugly. They were a sign of your courage and your love for me, as you got them while saving my life… and you almost lost yours in return.”

“I only would have lost it if you had. And I would make the same decision again any time.”

Their uncle had explained everything to them after they had been better. Kili’s adverse reaction had been pretty normal for someone who was about to lose his One. Since Ones were considered as two halves of a soul, one part couldn’t live without the other. His youngest nephew succumbing to insanity and illness had proofed the authenticity of their bond to the king, as much as it had broken his heart at the same time. The king knew he had to give Kili the space to decide for himself, for every dwarf had _the right_ to die with his One. 

“I would have done the same”, Fili whispered. “You are my One and I will follow you everywhere you go.”

The both of them sat in bed and were looking each other deeply in the eyes, their foreheads touching. The date of their official bonding ceremony had already been sat by the king himself in six months time.

“So will I. Even to the Halls of Waiting.”

“Even to the Halls.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit my [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/silva-13) and say Hi! :D


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